Chapter 4: First Contact
“What, do you have a deed? Maybe even a proof of purchase? Oh, oh! How about a receipt?”
“Thou art a… strange phantasm of the mind. We thought that we were resting to a sufficient degree so as to render such illusions annulled. Alas, it seems we were mistaken in that regard.” The alicorn’s voice was feminine and sickly sweet in tone. I did not know whether I should uphold it as being wildly unique, or be deathly afraid of its darker undertones. It made me both shudder in fear and listen intently to every word with respectful admiration. The voice commanded power and respect.
What frightened me the most is that she never opened her mouth once to say any of these things, no, she was directly projecting them into my mind! She took a step towards me and all I could do was stare unblinking and unmoving as I desperately tried to think my way out of the situation I had found myself in— I had no idea what she was or what it was capable of, I couldn’t just run away. I mean, she bore a striking resemblance to Luna, but the princess was back on Equus, surely.
The alicorn strode across the outcrop before stopping not a yard in front of me, her sleek wings folding closed with agonizing languidness. Each and every breath created a small cloud of frozen vapor as she stood there deep in contemplation. My mind raced—how in the hell was she breathing, much less making clouds of condensation? This was the moon, a near total vacuum, not a chilly winter’s day back on Equus.
Then, the alicorn hummed, tilting her head to the side as she regarded me. “So strange. We have no idea where the thoughts that conjured your appearance came from. This is something entirely new to us but, in the end, you are nothing but an apparition.”
I stared up at her, tears beginning to well up in the corners of my eyes. I wanted to look away, I wanted to go back to the ship, but I couldn’t bring myself to break its gaze. Her deep green eyes seemed to look right through me, freezing me in place. I was certain that this was a mare, or at least, feminine enough in voice to be called one.
She took a deep breath, sighed, then spoke once more. “While thou art certainly quite the interesting apparition, we are not benefited by thine presence in any way. We understand that our mind is slipping, but we shall not entertain such specters. Thus, we will dispel you back to the depths of our consciousness.” Extending a hoof, the alicorn lifted my chin until it was satisfied I was looking at it directly. “Goodbye, don’t come back.”
It then took its hoof and, with a satisfied smile, waved it directly through me as if it was wafting steam away from a pot. The feeling was intrinsically revolting, I wanted to vomit. I didn’t want whatever this thing was to touch me, much less phase through me. The synapses in my brain began to reconnect and, without even thinking, my right hoof shot up and sucker-punched the alicorn directly in the jaw, causing her to stumble back a few steps and sit down in pure astonishment.
She blinked, a confused look plastered on her muzzle before she lifted one of her armored forehooves, wiping away a dribble of blood from her lip. The alicorn stared at blood, dumbfounded before quietly remarking, “Thou… T-thou art no illusion…” Rising to her hooves at a glacial pace she repeated itself much louder, practically screaming. “Thou art not an Illusion! Thou art real! Thou art of flesh and bone!”
My brain finally reconnected with my hooves and I backpedaled, nearly tripping over myself as I tried in sheer panic to make distance between myself and the eldritch being. “W-what the actual fuck! Why are you in my head!? Get out!” I stumbled backwards to the edge of the ridge, glancing back and trying to judge how fast I might be able to make it to the bottom. My estimations were not in my favor, if I wanted to make it to the bottom intact anyways.
“T-Thou hit us.” The alicorn muttered, her slitted eyes narrowing as they focused solely on me. Her mutters gradually morphed into a reverberating yell, causing my ears to ring violently. “How darest thou strike us, Nightmare Moon, princess of the lunar realm?! Thou shall pay dearly for thine insolence, sniveling whelp!”
I gulped, glancing back over my shoulder again as I considered my options. Either take a tumble down the hill and try to outrun her, or try and talk my way out of it. Surmising that a tactical retreat was in order, I tried to buy some time until I could figure out exactly how I was going to get away. “N-Nightmare Moon? Like, the old mare’s tale? You’re supposed to be dead, gone, reduced to nothing! How are you—“
Nightmare Moon grit her teeth and sneered. “Old. Mare’s. Tale? Thou mean to tell us that, Nightmare Moon, the most fearsome and powerful being Equus has ever known, has been reduced to a character in a foal’s bedtime story?”
I waved my hooves in front of me defensively. “No no no, it’s a good story! Great even! Lots of virtue and morals to be taught, and with the revised version, it includes the part where Princess Twilight and her friends defeat… Uh. Mmm... Maybe we don’t need to talk about that part.”
I could see a vein pulsating on her forehead as she glared daggers at me. “Princess. Twilight. Princess! Twilight! That cur is a princess now?!”
I was dead. I was so unbelievably dead. Absolutely fucked. There was no way out of this situation, I might as well just lay down and accept my fate. Rest in peace, Orion Zephyr. “Uhhh… Yes?”
She breathed heavily, snorting sparkling clouds of icy vapor from her nostrils. A few moments of agonizing silence followed before she finally spoke with a tremolo of rage, causing my ears to sting as the volume climbed higher. “We advise that, lest we do something rash, thou chooses thine next words very, very carefully. We are the ruler of this realm and we do not take kindly to trespassing—“
I took a step further back, nearly slipping as I crested the top of the hill in retreat. “There’s no need to shout at me, I promise you that I didn't mean to strike you, it was a knee-jerk reaction!”
She grit her teeth, eyes twitching as she began to scream. “Never ever interrupt us again, worthless slime! We are the Lunar Queen. We are the Empress of the Moon. You will treat us with the respect and admiration we are owed! We are no fool, we foresee thy attempt at escape. Come, bow and worship your ruler, miserable peasant!”
I felt a strong push from behind me and I sat down, desperately flailing my hooves to stop as she dragged me away from the edge with her magic. I couldn’t take it anymore, I felt like my head was going to explode. “Faust almighty, my ears! I don’t care if you are the Queen of Trotland, you’re going to burst my eardrums if you don’t speak softer!”
Smiling wide, she circled her tongue across the tips of her teeth as she continued undeterred. “Thou hast an unrestrained tongue. We will speak in the royal Canterlot voice as loud and as often as we wish! Now, bow before the might and awe of—”
I glanced back frantically. The tumble was becoming more and more enticing by the moment. Who cared if she knew I was going to flee? I’d surely be safe if I could only make it back to the ship in time, I just needed to find a way to distract her. “What, bow before Nightmare Moon? A defeated foe of Equestria? You make me laugh. You’re not my princess, I only bow to Princess Twi—“
“Silence!”
Feeling a painful tug from my backside I was unceremoniously hoisted into the air, hanging upside down at eye level with Nightmare Moon. Her eyes were burning with a fire of uncontainable hate as she somehow managed to raise her voice to a peak yet I reached by mortal ponies. My ears begged for mercy, or maybe it was her voice which was laden with feedback, I couldn’t be sure. “We told thou not to ever interrupt us again. We have grown incredibly tired of thine contemptuous behavior. But, we are a merciful ruler and will offer you one last—“
I had an idea. I spoke loudly, trying to hide my fear. “Sweet Celestia, I can’t hear you over the static in your voice! It’s hardly regal and extremely embarrassing—I would have expected better of a princess!”
Nightmare Moon glared at me before continuing to spiel, the overwhelming static replaced by an equally intensive echo. “Quiet, wretch! We are a merciful ruler, so we will offer thou one last chance to apologize, grovel at our hooves, and pledge allegiance to—“
I smirked. She had taken the bait. “We’re on the moon, not in a vaulted cathedral. Cut it out with the echo, your speech is garbled and competing with itself. Come on, have some class while you address your ‘subject’.”
She grit her teeth, the fire in her eyes glowing brighter. She cracked her jaw and spoke, the echo replaced with a drier rasp. “Pledge allegiance to the Lunar Empire, damnit! It is a great honor, one unbefitting of a miserable, worthless pony such as thyself. But we, Nightmare Moon, have decided to treat you with undeserved grace and—“
“Come on, that’s even worse! It’s too dry and rings like a bell, you’ve lost all your regal pomposity. Surely you can do better than that. Hell, I've heard street merchants that demand more respect than you do. This is so disappointing, I expected better.”
Her eyes stared through me at something far away, followed by a faintly audible clicking as her voice returned to normal, speaking to herself in a trance. “We have adjusted the reverb, the tremolo, amplitude, and fade. Is this more preferable?”
I grinned. “Perfect.”
She blinked and snapped out of her musings, sneered again, and raised the volume to eleven. “Be quiet, miserable welp! You have interrupted us for the final time. We shall ensure that thou suffers a long, excruciating painful demise for thy contemptuous and churlish behavior! Dost thou have any last words?”
“Yep! Not today.” I used all my lower body strength to swing back as far as I could and, as her eyes went wide, I swung forward— bashing the front of my helmet into her muzzle. there was a small spatter of blood and she shrieked, stumbling back and tripping on a rock, landing on the flat of her back. My plan had worked perfectly. One small problem. In her lapse of concentration she had understably let go of me. One tiny issue. I was six feet off the ground when this occurred and dazed by the headbutt. I fell directly on my head, albeit it was nothing like it could have been had it occurred back on Equus, but it still sent a throb of pain as I crumpled to the ground.
Shaking my head quickly I turned and dove off the precipice of the ridge. It would not be a fun tumble, but anything was better than being face to face with that eldritch evil! I smiled—that was actually really clever of me, I thought it would have been much harder than—
Suddenly I was yanked from the air, being unceremoniously deposited back on the ridge, standing straight and upright, unable to move my hooves. Oh, come on! I was so close!
There, a few yards ahead, stood a powdered-donut Nightmare Moon, wings spread and fangs bared. Blood gushed from the front of her muzzle as her eyes narrowed to pinpricks. “Thou art a bastard! We will be trying to remove this cursed regolith from our mane for years to come! For that, thou will pay with thine life.” Pawing at the ground she let out a snort, seething hatred in her eyes. Leveling her horn at me, Nightmare Moon sprung into an enraged gallop.
I braced myself for the inevitable, still recovering from the screeching sound of her projecting her voice directly into my head. But as she dove head-first into my chest she passed harmlessly through my body. A sickening cold and a feeling of violation washed over me and I reeled back in bewilderment. “S-sweet mother of Celestia, what the fuck?!”
Nightmare Moon was terrifying, but the absolute feeling of dread and numbness that went through my body, shocked me to my core. The infliction was nearly indescribable, like being torn apart and put back together in just the few seconds that she made contact with me. It felt as if the cold void of space slipped inside me and drove the warmth from my body. That wasn’t even the worst part, that came from the sensation of being disassembled on an atomic level before hastily being put back together again.
A slug of vomit rose to the back of my throat which I just barely swallowed back down. With a quivering breath I was eventually able to pull myself from my haunches, legs shaking like a newborn foal as I glanced down the hill.
Nightmare Moon tumbled, the eldritch alicorn unable to correct herself as she bounced head over hooves, kicking up a voluminous cloud of moon dust as she hit the bottom of the rise. “A-Ah! Gods dammit!”
How in the hell had I gotten myself into this situation? I couldn’t help but let out an impassioned laugh. I needed to run, I needed to get away while I had the chance, but the sight of her tumbling helplessly before hitting the bottom with an oomph was just too funny to resist. She was down there, dazed and disoriented and I was ready to escape. I had the upper hoof, I could afford to laugh just for a moment.
She shook herself off and rose to her hooves, staring daggers at me as she lit her horn with an insane smirk. “T-Thou will pay! Nopony laughs at us and survives!
Suddenly the ground beneath me shook and I was caught in an ever-increasing tumble of loose rock. I frantically flailed my hooves, desperately praying that the grips on my suit’s boots would win out. But the more and more I fought the further and further I slipped down the hillside until I lost my footing. I slid, foundered, and started to uncontrollably cartwheel down the hill. My head screamed out for mercy,still throbbing from Nightmare’s deafening vocalizations, not to mention being dropped on my noggin.
The world blurred around me and I lost my sense of direction, a dull pain rippling through my extremities. The suit was armored and softly padded on the inside, but that did little to change the fact that I was being rattled like a cowbell.
Suddenly it all came to a hard stop but my head continued to spin. I couldn’t see anything except the dusty, gray Lunar soil my visor was buried in.. I groaned and rolled over as I tried to regain my bearings,meeting the gaze of Nightmare Moon as she loomed over me.
She leered, a toothy grin plastered across her muzzle. “Now, where were we? Oh, yes. We remember now, thou were taking great delight in our unfortunate miss. Alas, we will not make the same mistake this time.” She slammed her forehooves down, pinning my shoulder blades as I tried to push away and flee.
I could feel my wings instinctively fighting against their protective covers. If I were back on Equus I could fly away, I could escape, I could free myself! I wanted to survive, I wanted to live, this couldn’t be the end for me!
Taking a deranged delight in watching me struggle for my survival she then leaned close before licking the front of my visor, making sure her glinting teeth were plain as day. “We gavest thou a chance to avoid this fate, but it seems as if this is where we must bid thee farewell. Send our warmest regards to Faust, cretin.”
With that Nightmare Moon reared up, cackled, and brought her hooves down with a terrifying might on my helmet. But there was no shock, no impact, not even a sound. They merely passed through both my helmet and my head itself, intensifying my migraine to the point where my eyes began to tear up from the pain.
She stared in confusion, lifting her hooves again and bringing them back down with the same force as before. No result, apart from making me feel even more queasy. She brought them down again, and again, and again. “Why. Will. Thou. Not. Perish!?”
“I-I don’t kn—“ My stomach decided that It’d had enough and, helmet or no, I was going to vomit. With a convulsion I emptied the contents of my stomach onto the front of my visor, unable to stay my nausea any longer.
Nightmare recoiled in disgust, backpedaling as she ensured that she did not somehow get any onto her own hooves. “A-aah! Art thou trying to spit bile onto us?! That is revolting beyond words! Repugnant! Contemptible!”
Aiming through the gaps in what had been my breakfast I placed a sharp kick in Nightmare Moon’s gut. She immediately doubled over in pain, clutching her stomach as she swore. “Faust have mercy, thou will pay for that one!”
I darted from beneath her and ran like hell, trying my best to ignore the stench and soggy feeling as the vomit that has once been plastered to the glass slowly began to slip down my neck. I took a quick gulp from the straw in my helmet, spat it on the glass, and kept going. Cleaning the suit was a later-me problem, I needed to get the hell out of here!
A resounding crack echoed through my helmet followed by a sharp pain in the back of my head. Glancing back, I was horrified to find that Nightmare Moon was gaining on me, horn alight as she levitated a swarm of rocks around herself as she closed in.
“Haha, thou are a fopdoodle! We have found thine weakness! If we cannot incapacitate thou with our own hooves then a volley of sediment will have to suffice! Fear us, for thy doom is nigh, pony!”
Shit. I put everything I had into my legs, whipping them to gallop even faster as I was pelted with stones. Cresting another rise I lost my hoofing and stumbled to the bottom, recovering after a moment before struggling to climb the other side. Suddenly it felt as if an anchor had been tied to my rear hooves and I slipped back down the hill. Cursed magic! I rolled and brought my forehooves up to defend myself.
She was on top of me in a second, panting with a triumphant expression as she held a large rock in her magic. She brought it high over her head and brought it down with righteous fury on my visor, causing a spider-web of cracks to spread from the impact point.
I could see my eyes narrow to pin pricks in my tessellated reflection and warning popups began to appear all across my HUD. My vision filled with red and white, my heart raced, and my life flashed before my eyes as the reality sank in that a thin layer of glass was all that was protecting me from the vacuum of space.
Nightmare Moon grinned psychotically, lifting the rock up again. “Hah... ha… We wonder what will happen when we shatter your armor’s visor? Clearly, the battlefield between us will be leveled— face us fairly, Knight!” The glass in front of my muzzle glowed a bright blue and, suddenly, the cracks began to heal themselves. Nightmare gasped. “Thou has self-mending armor? This is not fair! Cheater!”
She brought down the rock again, peppering the glass with cracks only to have them rapidly fixed. Again and again she slammed the rock into my helmet to no avail, then, without warning, the stone slipped from her magical grip, rebounded, and collided with her horn. She screamed, grabbing her horn instinctively to protect it from further attack.
I jumped up, tackling her to the ground without a second thought. If she wanted to fight to the death I’d just have to oblige. I wanted to live!
We writhed and rolled wildly, quickly becoming coated in regolith which did nothing to help our grip on each other. I felt the nauseating pass through my gut, she must have just tried to kick me. She then brought a hoof up and plunged it through my chest, causing another slug of vomit to rise to the top of my throat. I was going to win, I was not going to lose my life to her! I didn’t know why she couldn’t hit me but I was going to use it to my own advantage.
Winding up a hoof I punched her in the cheek, Nightmare Moon spitting a mouthful of blood onto my visor in response. “Take that, wretched scunner! We thought that thou might be a simple wretch, but nay, thou knowest how to fight! Thou must be a noble knight sent to vanquish us!”
I tried to wipe the blood away but only smeared it onto the sleeves of my suit for my troubles. In my moment of distraction she had grabbed another rock, scraped it against the chestplate of my suit in a short-lived shower of sparks that filled my HUD with warnings about my suit’s integrity.
I brought my weight down on her again and we returned to tussling. She writhed and squirmed as we rolled back and forth—I was on top, the bottom, and everywhere in between from second to second as we fought. I could feel myself tiring, but I tried to shove that thought to the back of my mind. “Fuck you! Stay down! Just let me go, it’s not worth it!”
“W-we will never capitulate to the likes of—“
We rolled over again and I suddenly found myself on top of her, pinning her back to the ground. She gasped for air, eyes wide as she stared up at me with gritted teeth.Her breath dusted my spiderwebbed visor with ice as it fixed itself, splitting her furious image into a puzzle of fragments. I looked down, realizing that she had been scratched and scraped all across her upper body, oozing crimson from multiple places on her neck, chest, and legs. Maybe rolling around fighting in literal shards of glass lunar glass wasn’t the best for your skin.
Her muzzle received the worst of it though, badly bruised and gashed from the multiple hits to the face as the bridge of her nose was bled out from under her helmet. Her hooves weren’t in much better shape, having lost her hoof-guards somewhere along the way. She coughed, struggling for a moment but failing to free herself from under my weight. She gazed back into my eyes with a look that I had not seen in them yet. Fear, it was fear. “We… W-we art out of practice it seems. How… H-how unfortunate…”
I too began to gasp for air, relishing the break in the action. I had to stop myself from taking deep breaths however, the last thing I wanted was to deplete my oxygen to the point where I would not make it back to the ship and render this all for naught. My attention eventually wandered back to her eyes as they looked up at me, her lip quivering.
Her expression became more determined and she spat on me, a measure of confidence returning to her voice. “Just get it over with already… We know thou came here to vanquish us, to finish us off once and for all! Show us an ounce of chivalrous respect and make it quick, it is the right we deserve as a royal.”
“I… I didn’t come to the moon to finish you off, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I had no intention of killing you, on the contrary, you attacked me first!” I chuckled to myself. This was insanity, what was the world coming to? “Tartarus, I didn’t know you even existed until twenty minutes ago, I thought that you were obliterated by the Elements. Everyone thought you were cleansed from existence.”
She scoffed, a grimace plastered on her bloody muzzle. “We art alive and well and see no reason as to why we should not be! Be warned, take us not for a fool, knight. Surely it is Celestia, nay, that imbecile Luna who sent thou here to doest her work for her!”
I could not stop myself from laughing. She seriously thought that I of all ponies would be sent to vanquish her? She was insane, absolutely off the wall! “Hah, you’re going to be in for quite the surprise then, your terribleness.”
Nightmare Moon scowled, hacking up another slug of blood which she spat onto my visor with phlegmatic indifference. “If thou art not here to dispose of us, then what art thou doing in mine domain? Furthermore, what is thine intention here? Come to gloat? To sightsee? To mock our imprisonment? Spit it out already, sir knight.”
I bit my tongue. I couldn’t just tell her how or why I was there, at least, not outside of layman’s terms. Even though I had her subdued I couldn’t keep her like that forever. Who knew exactly what she was capable of? Sure, I had been able to get the upper hoof on her because she seemingly couldn’t hit me, at least not physically. That was odd in and of itself and left me with even more questions than answers.
Why was she still alive? How was she here when she was supposed to be an evil form of Luna? Why did she have a ring on her horn? No, I couldn’t tell her anything yet. I needed to play my cards right and determine her capabilities and the threat she posed first. “Your domain? You’ve got to be kidding me. This is the damned moon, nopony owns the moon! That’s foolish talk, especially coming from somepony who is imprisoned here.”
She started to raise her voice but never once tried to escape from beneath my hooves, more focused on shouting at me than smiting me down. “Of course we can own the moon, we have been here for over a millennium! We have more right to it than thou doest! Thou art in no position to challenge us for it! Colonizer! Land grabber! Thief!”
I glared down at her, my ears thoroughly unamused by her change in volume. I tried my best to steer the topic away from myself, I needed to know more about her. “I’m not here to challenge you for the ownership of the moon, your highness. Regardless, it's preposterous to say that you own it. What, do you have a deed? Maybe even a proof of purchase? Oh, oh! How about a receipt?”
“We do not approve of thine tone, pony. Show the empress of the moon some respect! We can show thou a deed if it would remove all doubts and misgivings about our legal ownership of our lunar realm.” She harrumphed, tossing her ethereal mane back. “That is not the matter at hoof. If thout art not here to quell us, then why art thou here to begin with? Prove thine intentions to be peaceful, knight.”
This was not going the way I had hoped, she was proving herself too stubborn to fall for a quick diversionary topic. “My name is not ‘knight’.”
She raised an eyebrow, a slow smirk spreading across her scuffed and scratched muzzle. She spoke with a sweet, almost seductive tone, with just the slightest hint of arrogant sarcasm. “Then what is thine name, sir knight? We demand that thou divulge it to us. Lest we know not the name of the one who bested Nightmare Moon in combat.”
I bit my lip for a moment, looking from side to side. Surely it couldn’t hurt, right? Humor her on this one tangent then I would use that credit to press her further for information. “Orion Zephyr. My name is Orion Zephyr.”
She smiled. A terrible, toothy, unsettling smile. “Orion Zephyr. This is an adequate name, now, tell us Orion Zephyr. What art thine intentions encroaching into our domain, uninvited and unwelcomed? Thine prior actions do not inspire confidence in us.”
I looked to the side for a moment, trying to put my thoughts together. How much could I tell her and keep the ship and, more importantly, Azure and Frost safe? “Well… It’s complicated. But, suffice it to say, they are not nefarious intentions. Completely peaceful, and I will not be here for long at all.”
She stared, unrelenting. “Explain. If our rivals sent thou not, then why art thou here?”
I groaned, ready to be made fun of. “Well, I am here mainly to study lunar geology. I don’t know if you had geology in your heyday, but geology is the study of—“
Nightmare Moon’s eyes went wide as she began to piece together the roots of the word in her mind. She cackled, writhing under my hooves with mirth. “Rocks? Rocks? Thou came all this way to study some stupid rocks!? Haha!” She squirmed with laughter and, finding I could no longer hold on to her, I let go. Immediately I took a few precautionary steps backwards to make some distance between us in case she had more fight left in her. But she didn’t get up, only rolled around in cachination, smearing moon dust into her open wounds as she did so without a care in the world. “We could've told thou that there is nothing interesting here and saved thou the trouble! Hah, that’s rich! Thou’st come to study the stones! The sediments!”
Today had gone from hopeful, setting out in search of adventure and curiosity, to exhilarating and terrifying, learning of the existence of and battling with Nightmare Moon, to now having said eldritch, immemorial evil, mock my job description. Could it truly get any worse? I honestly hoped she got up and electrocuted me with a bolt of dark magic, at least then I’d be saved from the embarrassment of it all.
Her laughter gradually died away and she rose shakily to her hooves, spreading her wings wide as she tried to shake the regolith from her everything.
I gulped, feeling as if I had made a grave mistake letting her back up as she stood, looking down on me once again. “How did thou come across us? The moon is a vast place, surely thou did not stumble across us by chance. Better yet, how did thou travel here in the first place? The elements are the only magic we know strong enough to send a pony to this realm.”
I took a step away from her, uncomfortable with the direction she was trying to steer the conversation. Why was I even still talking to her? Alas, the fact that I was talking to an alicorn that should not even exist glued me in place. I sighed. My mother had always told me that one day my curiosity would be my undoing. I should have listened to her sooner, maybe I wouldn’t be having this conversation.
I took a deep breath and tried my best to answer clearly and concisely. “Well, erm… I simply followed your hoof prints. They led me to you, after long enough.”
Her eyes went wide, jaw dropping open slightly in response. “Our… Prints…? May the stars curse us, of course! How could we have not deduced as such?! We shan’t make the same mistake again.” She lit her horn, stamping one of her hooves down into the regolith. When she lifted it back up there was scant a single misplaced granule to indicate that she had stepped there. “See? We hast become impossible to track! We never considered that it would be a problem but, seeing how thou camest across us, we have now secured our privacy.”
I kicked my brain. Thanks a lot. Now Nightmare Moon both knew of my existence and could covertly stalk wherever she wished. Real smart of you, Orion. Real smart. I had to turn this around, now! “Say, what’s with that ring on your horn? I don’t recall hearing in the tales that Nightmare Moon was one for jewelry and ornamentation.”
Nightmare Moon paused, looking down at the ground, then up at the stars. “The firmament is a sight to behold. Majestic and awe-inspiring, even after a millennium we have still been unable to count and track every last star that hangs within its embrace. …And the regolith, hast thou taken any samples of it yet? ‘Tis quite the interesting sedimentary feature, to be sure! Much knowledge of the moon’s formation could be gleaned from it.”
My brow furrowed. “…And how about your ability to phase through me? It’s odd, because you were able to grapple and pin me, but not make physical contact with your own attacks. That can’t have been intentional, what causes that? Is it the ring? Or is it some intrinsic rule of your imprisonment by the Element of Harmo—“
Nightmare Moon took a step back, rubbing the back of her helmet with a wingtip as she looked over at Equus, then towards the sun in the distance. “Egads! Wouldst thou just look at the time?! Not to mention that our hoof-guards, they are missing! We have quite a considerable amount of ground to search for our possessions.” She scoffed, gesturing to herself with a hoof. “And our appearance, we are disheveled! We have been dusted with regolith and need time to work it from our mane and, much more pressingly, our wounds!”
I stared in disbelief as she began a gradual retreat backwards up the hill, talking to herself all the while as she began to sweat profusely. “Oh, and we simply must get back to our evil scheming about how we shall destroy the element bearers and retake our rightful place on the throne of Equestria! Important things that a mere mortal such as thou couldst never hope to fathom.”
I stood in stunned silence for a few seconds, captivated by what I was witnessing. “Did you not just want to know about how I got here? Why am I studying lunar geology? H-hey! I’m talking to you, where are you going?! I thought you were Nightmare Moon, ruler of the lunar realm! Feared by all and fearing no one in return?!”
She hurried her pace, grabbing one of her misplaced hoof-guards from nearby and locking it back into place on her forehooves as her voice began to trail off with the distance. “Nay, we have no further interest in thy endeavors! Stay as long as thou wishest, but do not try to follow us or otherwise interact. We art very busy and simply do not have the time to spare! We bid thee farewell, Orion Zephyr. Thou wilt not be seeing us again, goodbye!” Turning tail, she dashed over the top of the hill, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.
I was left alone in absolute silence, questioning myself what in Faust’s name just happened. Nightmare Moon had just fled. Wait, Nightmare had fled. I was free to go. I didn’t think twice, I turned and sprinted back in the direction of the ship. This was too much for me to process and the last thing I wanted was for her to return, having had a change of heart and wanting to exact her revenge.
* * *
“Sweet Celestia, Orion, where have you been!? I know you said you’d be out for awhile, but neither of us thought that you’d be gone to the point of only having an hour of oxygen left!” Morning Frost dismounted hurriedly from the rover, prancing up to meet me. “Tartarus, what did you do to that camera?! It’s destroyed! You said you’d be careful…! Mark my words, Orion, when we get back inside I’m going to beat you over the head with a training manual for breaking that expensive and irreplaceable piece of equipment!”
I groaned. I had hoped that I’d be back before Frost and Azure, but it seemed as if I was sorely mistaken. Still, it was not like I could just tell her about what had just happened, not yet. I had taken deliberate care to wipe all the blood off myself just for that reason. Something I hadn’t even considered yet was the condition of the helmet-cam I had borrowed. I shuddered to think about how smashed it probably was. Gritting my teeth, I began to spin her a convincing story. “I just took a tumble off a ridge, it’s nothing. I’ll be—“
Frost came to a stop in front of me, at a loss for words. She stuck her hoof out and ran it across the long gash across my suit’s chest piece, mouth agape. “You fell off something tall enough to cause that and didn’t think to send a transmission to either of us? Orion, that was reckless of you. I mean, we both knew you were reckless, but I thought you had at least some common sense in there somewhere.”
I sighed, trying my best to react in kind to her jabs. “I’m sorry about the camera and the suit, Frost. It was an accident, honest. I didn’t break anything critical so I didn’t contact either of you because you were already behind on your own tasks. The last thing any of us needs is mission control on our backs as to why we are falling further behind. I know it was foolish of me not to do so, but I didn’t want to worry either of you. I’m sorry. I hope you can understand.”
Frost sighed defeatedly. “Well, at least your heart is in the right place. Come on, I’ll help you get all that dust off and throw that suit in the fabricator to repair the damage. Luna’s sake, Orion. You’re covered head to hoof! Did you at least catch it on video?”
I chuckled a little. “No, I don’t think I did. I guess you were right though, I was going to eat shit in spectacular fashion eventually. Also, about the suit, I may have, er, lost my stomach a little bit after the fall. Nausea and all.”
Frost grimaced, turning towards the cargo bay ramp with a nod. “Well, maybe hit the shower and wash it out first, then we can use the fabricator. I know the feeling. It’s unpleasant.”
I followed her, curiosity piqued by her response. “You’ve puked in your suit before? Gross.”
“It was my first launch and I made the mistake of eating beforehoof. Cut me some slack. Not everyone can withstand the G’s like you can, Mr. Featherbrain.” Frost rolled her eyes as we entered the cargo bay, falling in stride with me before bumping my flanks. “Well, I suppose I’m glad that you’re okay. Or, at least I have to say that for legal reasons. Having to repair a suit is far better than having to write a letter back home. That’s the last thing any of us want to do, mainly because of the amount of paperwork involved and not because of the subject matter.”
I nodded in agreement as we entered the airlock, Morning Frost helping to remove the dust from the more hard to reach places. It was honestly refreshing to hear her snarky tone again, it meant I was back home safe and sound. “Well, I’m glad to see that you’re in such a good mood today. Where’s the Captain at, anyways? I thought she was with you working on those seismographic monitoring stations?”
Frost smiled, running me over with one of the static dust wands. “Oh, she already went inside to work on a report to send back home, that and a letter to her parents. I was just finishing some paperwork on the rover when I saw you show up. I’m sure she’ll be overjoyed to see you back safe and sound.”
I smiled, reaching out a hoof to press the keypad and cycle the airlock. There was a rush of air and the lights went green and I was finally able to remove my helmet. It was good to be back.
Beside me, Frost removed her own helmet only to immediately wrinkle her nose and wave her hoof. “Oh, yikes. Yeah, Orion, you actually reek. Please go shower. Preferably now. You can tell me more about the ‘tumble’ you took later, just leave the suit in the machine shop once you’ve washed it and I’ll work on fixing it up tonight. Should be as good as new tomorrow.”
I turned back, gave her a sincerely apologetic look, then trotted off to my room. It was embarrassing but at least she only made fun of me a little for it. It could have been far far worse, knowing Frost. Entering my room I was greeted by a blast of bone-chilling cold. This time I didn't even bother asking the ship how bad it was, instead I went directly to the bathroom and shut the door. Whistling, I made quick work of stripping out of my suit and under layers before throwing the latter into the washing machine.
Stepping into the shower I breathed a warranted sigh of relief as the scalding hot water took my worries away. There was no more Nightmare Moon. No more having to explain myself to my comrades. No worry about what that might entail if the agency found out about either. Just peace, true inner peace. I grabbed my suit and pulled it in, trying to rinse it out to the best of my ability. I counted my blessings, the contents of my stomach had been about as fluid as they could have been, so at least they went down the drain with little fuss.
Shutting off the water I waited for the drying cycle to dry both myself and the suit to a suitable degree before draping it over my back. As I passed the mirror on the way out of the bathroom I had a passing thought about brushing my mane, but decided against it. Sure, it was a mess, but I would just have to shape it up again in the morning. I’m sure that the only one it would bother would be me.
The room was frigid, as usual, and I spent as little time in it as possible on my way to the door, shaking off any residual water from my coat in the hallway instead of in the ice box. I trotted down the hallway, calling out for Azure. “Azure? Azzzuuureee? Captain, where are you at?!”
There was no response, of course. Just my luck, she was probably in the bathroom or something and couldn’t hear me. I trotted down the hall to the workshop, clicking my hoof against the keypad and, after the door opened, wandered into the darkened interior of the space. I fumbled around a moment for the light switch and, after a few seconds of searching, finally found it and cut on the lights in earnest.
The machine shop was a voluminous, but oddly cozy space. Around its circumference were an array of work tables, tool boxes, and other varied equipment. There were manual machines and computerized ones as well, sitting side-by-side on the tables or tucked away on their own stands to the side. There was a knee mill, a lathe, drill press, shaper, arc welders, sheet-metal rollers, and all other manner of equipment for both making spare parts and maintaining the ship. This was Circuit Solder’s own personal sanctuary and, even though he was not here, I felt as if I was intruding on a peaceful place.
The centerpiece of the room was a large glass and metal box with a rugged steel table inside, overlooked by a number of robotic armatures. That was the fabricator. It could weld, it could print, it could machine. Plastics, metals, rubbers, composite materials, you name it and it could handle it. An absolute Faust-send to making spare parts in the field.
I sighed. I wished Solder had taught me more about using it, it would be so unbelievably awesome to be able to utilize it to its fullest extent. Although, it was not needed. Solder or Gear Shift could just model and design the parts back on Equus and send the files up to be made, that was far easier and more reliable than having an under-trained operator like myself.
I set my suit and helmet down at one of the workstations, pulling out a set of screwdrivers from a nearby drawer. I gingerly removed the magnetic mount of the camera from the helmet before placing the assembly in front of me. Honestly, it didn’t look half bad. Sure, the casing has been slightly mangled and the lens shattered, but we could print a new case and we had a number of spare lenses. Nothing said that the electronics were busted, although I was about to find out.
Taking one of the screwdrivers in my maw I gingerly removed screw after screw. Eventually I was able to pry the casing to the camera off, revealing the assortment of electronics inside. Now I was by no means a camera technician, but I didn’t see anything broken or smashed. I smiled. It seemed as if the protective shell had done its job, at its own sacrifice as intended. Although, maybe I should just call Solder to be sure—
There was a click from behind me and the sound of the door sliding open with a quiet hiss.
“Orion. There you are.”
I stumbled off the stool and stood at full attention, holding the best wing and hoof salute I could muster. “Yes ma’am, Captain Azure!”
Azure entered the room with a lackadaisical pace. Ending up in front of me with an unresolved expression, torn between relief and rage.
I gulped. “Captain, I’m sorry I took so long getting—“
Azure slapped me across my face, causing my head to lurch to the side. Then she just stood there in silence, staring at me as her body quivered slightly. A minute passed and I brought my head back level, holding my straight-up posture.
“Morning Frost told me everything. Orion, I am commanding you to stop being so stupid. What in the world has gotten into you?”
I stared dead ahead, trying to not meet her righteous gaze. “Captain, I'm sorry. I didn’t mean to—“
Azure grabbed me by the chin, dragging my head down to her level. My eyes reluctantly tracked to meet hers. They were filled with proverbial fire. “Orion, I don’t want your apology. Do you even realize how badly that could have gone?” She stamped her hooves in unbridled rage as tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes. She glanced over at my suit, then back at me. “We could have been shipping you home in a body bag, that’s what could have happened. That’s incredibly selfish of you, Orion. We’re a team. We look out for each other. If you’re not going to be a part of that team and tell us when somethings wrong then you’re not only endangering yourself, you’re endangering everypony else on this mission. I will not tolerate that, regardless of if you’re my friend or not. Do you understand?”
I bit my tongue before responding. “Yes ma’am, I understand. It will not happen again.”
“If it does, I’m transferring you. We will not be flying together ever again.” Azure reached up with her hooves, wrapped them around my neck, and pulled me into a tight embrace. She sniffled and began to sob softly. I hesitantly reached out a hoof to pat her head, but she swatted it away before I could react. She sighed, speaking quietly under her breath. “Orion, what am I going to do with you…? I’ve been trying my best to avoid you all day— and then you go and pull a foalish stunt like this and force my hoof…”
I squirmed a bit in her grip. “If something’s wrong we should talk about it, Azure… Communication is the cornerstone to—“
She reacted by pushing me away before standing up. “Don’t preach to me about communication, unless you want to add being a hypocrite to the growing list of negative traits on your mission file. Hopefully it will not come to that…”
Azure sighed again, wiping a tear from her eye. “Orion, I want you to inventory the entire kitchen and write down every single ration we have unboxed. Take your time, think about how your words and actions might affect those around you. When you’re done, leave the paperwork on the table and go straight to bed. That’s an order.” With that she turned and trotted out of the workshop, closing the door behind her.
* * *
I stared at the ceiling of my bunk. I should have been asleep hours ago, but the land of rest was refusing to take my ticket. My heart throbbed slowly in my chest, the warmth it provided working against the icy chills as I snuggled further under the covers. I exhaled, breathing a cloud of icy vapor which glinted in the dim light that permeated the room. It flew on unseen currents, twinkling in the air before gradually fading away. Just like how Nightmare Moon had breathed those transient clouds, now so did I.
I rolled over, staring at the wall. Try as I may, I could not escape the thought of the terrible, eldritch creature I was sharing the lunar surface with. What if she came in the night and sabotaged the ship? How was I going to tell Frost and, more importantly, Azure about her? Was she really a threat, or could I stomach my fear and learn more about her for the sake of science?
The gears in my head continued to turn and sleep continued to evade me. The thoughts came creeping in. How would the princesses react? How about ESA? Would my career be in jeopardy if I held my tongue and said nothing? Kept it all to myself? Would… Would my friendship with Azure be at stake?
Azure... I curled up under my blankets further, feeling their reassuring warmth. She had been acting incredibly weird the past few days, she must just be stressed. Surely that was it. I would have to make sure I stayed on her good side. Tomorrow was a new day, I could ensure that I remained helpful and professional so that she wouldn’t think any less of me.
I sighed deeply, reaching my hooves out from the protective warmth of the covers, picking up my helmet and holding it weakly above my head. Tapping the side caused the display to turn onto the photo gallery, just where I had left it last time I had looked an hour ago. I flipped through, picture by picture. The hoofprints. Nightmare Moon, crouched on the ridge as she reveled in the beauty of the sky. And, as I clicked again, one last photo which I had not taken.
It was her, overtop of me when she first pinned me at the bottom of the ridge. Teeth bared, tongue outstretched on its way to licking my helmet. I shuddered momentarily, that has been so undeniably gross. I had not taken the picture, it must have been a malfunction in the camera from being smashed on the way down the hill. The lens had been cracked, but the glass had not yet been shattered, giving the whole scene a fragmented view.
I stared into her eyes, pondering all that she had said in our encounter, especially how it had ended. Why had she been so afraid to answer my questions? If she was really the all powerful vessel for evil and jealousy that my mother had told me all those years ago then why, why, why? Why had she run away? Why had she spared my life? Better yet, how had I defeated her?
I groaned, banging my head up against the headboard of my bunk. Better yet, why had I not finished her off when I had the chance? I would have been a hero to Equestria, like the Element bearers. Why couldn’t I have just killed her when I had no questions in my mind?
Alas, I had done what I thought was right. In the process, I may have just doomed the entire mission before it had barely begun. I finally knew why I could not sleep.
It wasn’t fear, it was regret.
I regretted that I had gone out by myself. I regretted that I had discovered Nightmare Moon. I regretted that I had not removed her as a threat when I could have. I… I…
I bit my lip. I regretted that I could not get more answers from her.
I brought the helmet close to my chest, hugging it protectively with my hooves. There was no sense living in regret now, I needed to buck up and live with the consequences of my actions. Tomorrow was a new day. It could be better. I could find a way to tell Azure and Frost, I could find a way to smooth over whatever was going on between us and move forward. I just needed to wait for the right moment to tell them.
My eyelids became heavier and heavier, slowly shuttering my field of vision into an all-encompassing black. My whole body relaxed in unison and I felt myself slipping down, down, down. Ever deeper, ever darker. I just needed… To wait… Just… Needed… To…
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Lovely update.
11542346 Well, it's Equestria's magical little moon, so we can't really know any of its actual properties. Same with their Sun.
Shouldn't have given her your name, genius. But then intelligent decision making is clearly not one of this dude's strengths.
Gosh, there's an actual, honest to Faust demon up here with us, maybe I should tell someone? Nah, imma be a hero, or something, I got this!
I don't care about the dangerous stunt Orion Zephyr pulled at the beginning of the story because he was being egged on by his superior Azure at the time. But Orion keeps breaking his word about what he's doing outside, going into dangerous situations by himself, and not informing his crewmates about said danger. He consistently puts his desires for exploration and glory above his own responsibilities.
In addition to that, his behavior towards Nightmare Moon all but guaranteed that he would have been killed for his antagonism if she had the ability to harm him, when swallowing his pride for the sake of the mission was all it would have taken to prevent this.
And he regretted not killing Nightmare Moon? He regretted not going beyond what the will of harmony decided was an appropriate punishment and slaying a mare in the place of her banishment? That's like saying that people would be morally justified breaking into prisons to independently execute inmates waiting out the sentences that the greater justice system imposed on them.
Orion is a real bastard as far as I'm concerned. I hope he gets taken down a few pegs so he can experience character growth soon because I really don't like him as a person.
I can’t wait to see what happens next. Also I’m wondering how the others will react to Nightmare Moon being real and on the moon with them.
Azure you should realize by now that your crush is as dense as they come! Just tell him!
11572009
He is just plain idiot
11573039
I’ve tried not to bite too hard on this topic because it’s touched on in much greater detail later on, but it keeps cropping up. My thoughts on the matter are as follows:
Have you considered the possibility that both operating a member down and the interesting crew roster choice might be an elaborate experiment in and of itself? Everything happens for a reason. Just food for thought, mind you. ;)
P.S. Glad you are optimistic about the start + suspend disbelief due to cartoon horses. That’s the right attitude to approach this story with!
11571773
Seriously. He now has PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE! TELL someone already! You either look like an idiot because of your made up story or you look like an idiot when NMM comes knocking, which she probably will, and the others find out you knew about her the whole time. Heck you're already gonna look like a moron for not telling them in the first place, might as well cut your losses and be smart now.
11573056
So you're saying the ESA is run by VaultTec. That honestly makes a ton of sense.
11573083
Never said the experiment was scientific in nature. It could very well be friendship oriented— alas! My lips are sealed on that front for the timebeing. Let me cook, I have a plan I swear!
11571773
Yeah, the lying at this point is ridiculous. I am actively beginning to dislike Orion because he insists on lying about it. Keeping quiet about the hoofprints initially? I don't agree with it but I kind of understand the reasoning.
Not calling his teammates and actively lying about what damaged his suit? No, that is extremely irresponsible, stupid and dangerous. He knows that Nightmare Moon knows where the ship is, because her hoofprints start within clear view of the ship. She has demonstrated that her magic works and she can use levitated rocks to damage things. What if she decides to come back tonight and smash some of the windows or otherwise damage the ship? What if she attacks his teammates while they are far from the ship? Not warning Azure and Frost about the magic capable hostile creature puts them in danger.
He put himself and by extension the entire mission in jeopardy multiple times. If he doesn't get court martialed for this then Azure is clearly biased.
Also, I don't think his fear of Frost stealing the credit is well established. Especially since he HAD the opportunity to write a report on his discovery, with pictures, and send it in that morning. Then he could have gone and gotten more pictures to add to the report. I can’t imagine the ESA would have disagreed with him going out to take more pictures.
I will acknowledge that he seems to have some deep set emotional/psychological issues. This need for validation, to cling to this being his discovery, as well as his mental inability to recognize what Azure's behavior indicates. I hope these are issue that he will be working on as the story goes on.
I really really want to enjoy this story. I love the premise! The idea of NightmareMoon existing separately on the moon, only to be encountered by astronauts who didn't know she was there is fascinating and has so many possibilities! Ponies in space is also a favorite of mine and this story so far sits in a perfect spot.
Unfortunately, if Orion's behavior doesn't change soon, and if he doesn't suffer proper consequences for his glory seeking and reckless actions, then I might have to give up on this.
If you are doing this just so you can have a big Liar Revealed moment, then I want you to know it feels incredibly forced so far.
I don't feel like we have been given a good enough reason why Orion is continuing to lie. I really hope this can all get sorted out next chapter. The sooner he stops lying the better.
11573295
Maybe we're going for the ultra-rare "MC gets keelhauled by responsible authority figures due to his protagonist shenanigans" plot twist.
Fight scene was well-planned, with lots of snark and comedy. Orion has lots of trauma to process now, between Nightmare Moon and his friends/cremates.
That's FOE tech level! Cheater, indeed.
11573083
StableTec. Or Wayland Co. Simepony up there got an evidence that NMM actually lives?
11582329
It has its limits. NMM should have tried a little harder.
My only guess is that whatever magic prevents Nightmare Moon from harming others also has some in-built compulsion that prevents others from mentioning her. That's why Orion never said anything about the hoofprints he found, and why he lied about meeting her despite having solid proof. Makes sense since Nightmare Moon is quite... murderous...
11582471
This has been really enjoyable so far. Have you ever thought about submitting this to EQ Daily?
I am absolutely loving this so far. Was sent here by one "Commander Applejack" and I've gotta say, well worth the read. Yet another good one added to the list. Excited to see what comes next!
11809442
Sorry going is slow! The transportation industry is brutal and I’ve been away from my workspace for awhile. Mired in edits and touchups for Ch.5– I know perfection is impossible, but I want it to be PERFECT since the wait was so long. Lots of quippy and fun dialogue~ Glad you enjoy!
The setup for the story thus far has been fantastic. I’ve really enjoyed all the little in-between bits pertaining to the mission and the relationship of the teams—the team-building icebreakers stands out to me—it all comes off to me as a great portrayal of ponies, even amid all the swearing.
As for how the story ahead seems to be going, the reveals and encounters aren’t off-putting in the slightest. I know some have a tendency to get frustrated with characters and how their actions play into ‘stupid’ decisions, but here it really seems to work for me. The team is cobbled together and not optimal at all, and the note of their mission being untelevised really helped me put in perspective just how loose the mission and team could end up being. Succinctly: I like all of the characters so far! It’ll be fun to see how things play out between their personalities when Orion decides to speak up and communicate (or as the case may be, fail to communicate in time).
There are some well-played themes established here, and with all the little details sprinkled throughout your writing, I’m excited for the next update.